No More Snacks at Church

So this morning as I was packing the diaper bag for church I realized that Lauren is now 6 years old and still eating a snack during Sacrament Meeting. It's time to phase out the snacks. They don't need them anymore. I floated the idea to the children before we left and it was met with cries of dismay and protest. I decided since Ben was going to be traveling and I'd be solo at church I didn't want to introduce something else new to the routine, so we took the usual snacks with us. As if by act of God, both Lauren and Spencer spilled their snacks all over the floor during Sacrament Meeting and were unable to eat them. It was quite fun cleaning up two separate spills while trying to rock Brenna to sleep.

When we got home I asked the kids about Sacrament meeting. Lauren said that she had listened to the talks while she colored. I mentioned how we didn't need the snacks to get through Sacrament Meetings. Lauren said it wasn't fun having the snacks spill. I said that we still managed to make it through church without snacks, to which she replied, "Yeah, but not very well." Next week, for Fast Sunday, we will try just bringing a snack for the kids to eat right after church on the way home. We'll see how it goes. If it spills in the car I'll know the Lord is telling us that isn't the solution either.

Here are some videos of Brenna sitting. She is now 6 months and can sit really well with a pillow behind her. She can do a few balance checks before falling over without any support, unless she is unfocused and sad, as in the second video. She cut her first tooth on Friday and has been kind of irritable about it all weekend. She sleeps through the night and has begun a bit of babbling interspersed with the cooing. Such a cutie.

Laughing Brenna

This is so silly. Spencer is the only one who can make Brenna laugh. I don't know what his secret is because I think I'd be terrified.

8 Eyes

Like mother like daughter, I guess.





Lauren started to complain of headaches and her eyes hurting her when she did her homework. At first I thought it was just a ploy to delay doing homework. I finally decided to get her eyes checked. She needed glasses, though just when she is reading or coloring or doing other things requiring attention to details. I didn't get my glasses until second grade, but perhaps I needed them sooner. Lauren hasn't had her eyes checked at school yet and that's how we found out I needed glasses.


She really likes the glasses and is excited to wear them to school. I suppose since she needed them so young it probably means her eyes will be about as bad as mine. Ben has been giving me a hard time about passing my bad eyes along since he has 20/20 vision. One day I'll have 20/20 again, and no, it won't be after Lasik surgery. Shudder!

Miracles in Our Lives

The Priesthood is such a wonderful blessing in our lives. A couple weeks ago Spencer was playing backwards on one of our dining room chairs. It fell over and he landed on top of the chair with his right arm pinned under the chair. This is the elbow that he broke back in December and the fall was much worse. Ben and I picked him up and put him on the couch and his arm looked pretty bad. There was a bruise forming and it looked like it was swelling and he wasn't moving it at all. We asked him to move his fingers and he moved them only a little and not the thumb at all.

I was freaking out. I was sure it was broken again. I was supposed to go to the temple in about 40 minutes and we couldn't get a hold of our home teachers. One happened to be at the temple and the other was just catching a flight back to California. Ben gave Spencer a blessing himself and within a few minutes Spencer was moving his fingers on his own. 20 minutes after the accident he said he wanted to go to bed and he was putting weight on his right arm. I decided to go to the temple after all since Spencer's arm was doing so much better. I am glad I did.

By the next morning the bruise was gone as was the swelling and Spencer was using his arm like nothing happened. All he had to show from the fall was a rug burn on his elbow. I am so grateful for the power of the Priesthood. I know it healed his arm and protected him from more serious injury.

I'm sorry I've been remiss in my postings. I keep waiting to make a grand update in our situation, but nothing is being resolved. I'll just say that we are all doing well and still waiting for various things to come together. Here are the three happy children. One of them is getting too much love.

Seriously, Mom, I'm six now.

Goodness, where did the last six years go? Lauren is growing up fast. Her new phrase is "I am seriously tired," or "seriously, mom, I need to do. . .". Don't you just love school? Seriously!

A cute froggie sundress.

Finally, some lightsabers

This game looks really fun for the kids especially since they just got into hopscotch.

Disneyland, playing in the fountain.

Freezing after playing in the fountain and the sun set. Also, Lauren's birthday cake.